Crested Butte, Redstone, Somerset and Carbondale were originally founded as coal mining camps. Marble is at the location of Marble Mountain, the place where the marble that built the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and so many other buildings in Washington, DC came from. Hotchkiss, Paonia and Crawford are farming and ranching towns. Gunnison was founded on the main route of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in the early 1880's but is now a ranching, government, education and tourism center. This is huge countryside with a shortage of people.

Except for the stretch between Crested Butte and Paonia State Park, the West Elk Loop is paved highway and is accessible year round. That dirt stretch, though, is closed from the first good snowfall usually into the following May. The aspen forest along that dirt road is probably the largest stand of aspens on Earth and is absolutely exquisite in the fall when the leaves start to change...